Senator O’Connor: ‘For Shoreline Aviation, a huge day’ – Part 6
In 2016, 31-year-old Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth won his first election to serve Massachusetts’ Plymouth and Norfolk District as its state senator. That followed eight years of serving as his predecessor’s Legislative Director at the State House. He’s still in his 30s. Even so, one could safely say that Senator O’Connor has been around the block a few times. And those includes climate and transportation blocks.
According to a WBUR news report on how the state will cut emissions and positively impact climate change, “Massachusetts is legally required to dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions over the next few decades. By 2050, the state needs to achieve ‘net-zero’ emissions, and getting there will be no easy task.”
According to aviation pioneer BETA Technologies – who developed the electric aircraft and charging stations on display at Marshfield Municipal Airport this sunny October 13 day – aviation accounts for somewhere between 3% and 9% of emissions, and that number is rising dramatically. Transportation, generally, accounts for about 37% of greenhouse gases in the state, says WBUR, making it the single largest source of emissions.
One wonders, what’s to be done?
For starters, declare mandatory goals to reduce emissions, as noted above. And in transportation, that means a serious shift to electric power.
Cutting the ceremonial ribbon are, from left, MassDOT Aeronautics Administrator Jeff DeCarlo, Rep. Josh Cutler aide Susan Moran, Marshfield Town Administrator Michael Maresco, state Senator Patrick O’Connor, Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Amy Naples, Geoff Douglass (who spearheaded the project for Shoreline), Shoreline Aviation President Keith Douglass, FAA Regional Administrator Colleen D’Alessandro, BETA Technologies COO Blain Newton, South Shore Chamber of Commerce Director of Local Affairs Eric Dykeman. Photo courtesy of BETA Technologies
Enter BETA. Founded six years ago in Vermont, this technological wonder child of environmentally conscious engineers and aviators is creating electric aircraft and the charging stations to power them. And, as described in Parts 1-5 of this series so far, the electric aircraft designs soon to be certified by the FAA will help lead aviation into a cleaner future, and sooner than later. BETA and Shoreline Aviation, the airport’s management company, along with strong support from Eversource and MassDOT’s Aeronautics Division, collaborated to install BETA’s chargers airside and roadside at the airport – to charge both electric aircraft and electric ground vehicles.
BETA’s ALIA 250 electric aircraft flew into KGHG on a sunny day before the event. She received the BETA fast charger’s inaugural charge and the deserved oohs and ahs from the invitation-only audience. The bigger excitement behind this event was the fact that this electric aircraft charging station is the first and only one to exist in all of Massachusetts. And Senator O’Connor, who represents Marshfield in the state Senate, was right there to talk with the audience.
Let’s let the senator tell it in his words.
“I want to congratulate Keith (Douglass, of Shoreline) and Geoff (Douglass, of Shoreline, and O’Connor’s high school classmate) and everyone here at Shoreline for a really just tremendous accomplishment. All the players, from BETA, MassDOT, Eversource, the FAA – it really was a team collaborative effort to make what was once thought a dream a reality here today. And that it’s happening right here in the district that I have the honor representing makes it even more special to be the first one in Massachusetts.
ALIA 250 takes off following the commissioning celebration at Marshfield Municipal Airport on Oct. 13, 2023. Photo courtesy of BETA Technologies
“One of the things we’ve been able to accomplish – in addition to being on the Climate Change Committee I’m also on the Transportation Committee, and understanding the goals that Massachusetts has set for themselves – if we could snap our fingers right now and make sure we reduce our carbon footprint to the standards that we have made for ourselves almost entirely by 2050, if we could make sure we could reach all those climate goals, we would. But we can’t. We’re bold, and as bold as we possibly can be, but we’re also realistic. And we’re realistic to the point that we need to make a bridge. Today, in my opinion, represents a huge step forward on that bridge that we’re creating to a better planet.
“For the town of Marshfield, this is a huge day. For Shoreline Aviation, this is a huge day. For the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it’s a huge day. And for our environment and our future, it’s a huge day.”
Photos and video are courtesy of BETA Technology.
Come back for more parts to this ongoing series, featuring the insights of stakeholders and proponents of combatting global warming through technological development in aviation.
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